Asian Meal for 4 (Pt1) - Kecap Manis Pork Belly & Tofu with Minced Pork

This is essentially a variation of my braised pork ribs made easy using pork belly and substituting 1/2 the sugar with kecap manis - which brings out the sweet flavours. I add 1/2 a tbspn of the TM Vegetable paste instead of using soy sauce as the salt content. Brings in extra depth in flavour.

While this is cooking on the bottom you can make Tofu with Minced Pork. In order to demonstrate this for friends or customers, I general use a strip of the frozen pork belly skin removed and mince this myself in the TM. You can just use a lean pork mince for this.

The recipe is available on teh Recipe Community so I won't repeat unnecessary info here. I've added a few photos to whet your appetite.

The pork belly takes about 20 - 30 mins, but your tofu dish takes longer. When combined, go for 35 - 40 mins at Varoma, Speed 1. Trust me the meat will not get tougher, it will only become more tender and melt-in-your-mouth!

 

Quick update: life, love & manic-depressive mayhem

The Vegan Boy and I broke up near the end of March. Found out I have atopic syndrome or commonly known as hyperallergic. No this is different from being a hyperchondriac thank you! This means, I may have allergic reactions to food stuff unexpectedly. So I'm not really allergic to prawns or shellfish or pollen. I can just be allergic to anything! YAY! Great medical discoveries abound, I'm slowly developing a fear of being allergic to something while out eating. Oh, and then my day job became a lot busier - hence the post title. Yup, no excuse. Actually it makes not much of a difference to my TM adventures. I am a self-confessed stress baker - see the previous posts on bread and hot cross buns. Plus I have been cooking LOTS, just not keeping up with the blog posts. Photographing less of the stuff I cook, I tend to forget during teh cooking process and only have "end results".

Shall post up some of the stuff cooked in the last week - Easter being a holiday, I took a break too! From the Internet.

•  I've done several cocktail slushies over the weekend out of town with some friends *(we were so busy drinking it and having fun that I don't have pitures of it except with people holding the glasses drinking!)
• Made my own butter! (EDC recipe)
• Made Hollandaise sauce using the said 'fresh' butter! (EDC recipe)
• Soffritto in the TM (my way... sadly over estimated the amoutn of liquid which results from soffritto and ended up cooking on the stove anyway)
• Pizza dough (I am proud to say I followed the EDC recipe to the letter!)
• TM'd my own cheese blend for the pizza
• Made a garlic & chives cream cheese dip (minor variation to herb dip - I really don't like parsley)
• re-made the mushroom soup, again with my variations (using the TM butter and additional cream)

I have my first demo coming up soon! Quite excited, trepidated and well, in general hoping everything runs well without major mishaps that's all.

Just because I'm no longer in a relationship with a vegan is no excuse not to explore alternate healthy food option where I can. In the plan for this month:

• re-doing the chilli mussels sometime this month, it was fantastic except for the washing of the mussels - anyone know an easier way to de-beard and clean these things?
• the char siu pork recipe to be tested
• gluten free scones (I'm thinking will cheat and use pre bought gluten free flour and then do this recipe again with TM made gluten free flour)
• pineapple sorbet
• try a pasta recipe my "I'm not picky" father will eat.
• Brazil Nut & Banana Brownies (vegan & gluten free)
• tempted to try TM Milo (two links, I've yet to find the original post by Cathy), I think I'm missing the Rapadura. I didn't know the 'English' term for it until now.

I think that's all ambitious enough for the rest of the month - to be juggled with my day job and other social commitments. It's definitely hard to juggle the pre-existing life/free time with being a consultant. Some days I just want to 'vegge out' and do nothing and I find that I can't *sigh*. Ahhh commitment... I'm so c-phobic. Wish me luck!

What are you cooking this week?

Borscht soup recipe

Mom always told stories of her childhood days and I recall one story where she talks about the "Old Russian" restaurant in Beijing - the borscht being her favourite dish.

The EDC has a TM Borscht recipe and I bought some beetroot and parsnips, but I have a feeling it's not so traditional so I searched for a few recipes:
http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/5075/russian-cabbage-borscht.aspx
http://www.cookuk.co.uk/ethnic/russian/borsch.htm

I don't have all the beef bones etc, but I'm thinking I'll try my hand at it - instead of the Pumpkin & Parsnip soup plan for tonight.

I'll try to keep to the TM recipe this time and then explore the other options.

TM training & Tomorrow's meal plan tonight

I had TM training on Wednesday night which wen quite late. Learnt loads about the machine and the background and the whole structure of the direct distribution system. With the current economic climate this is quite an resource efficient systems and I really admire the people who came up with the structure - in what could be perceived and used negatively with other products.

Happily in this case, despite what may seem like a pyramid scheme - I really think the whole journey is worth it. There's so many healthy recipes to try and so many unearthly recipes - which are still healthier than eating a version of it outside (pre-made with additives and preservatives etc).

I got a few recipe books now: EDC, seafood, gluten free, vegetarian and the Full Steam Ahead.

Ok the whole point of this entry is to note down what recipes I'll be trying for tomorrow night and since I hate using pen and paper I'd lose track of, I've decided to blog my good intentions.

Friday night:
Entrée: pumpkin & parsnip soup
Main: southern marinade chicken (non TM, I think I will oven this) with mixed sundried tomato, spinach & feta risotto
Dessert: torta caprese plus dark chocolate & banana ice-cream.

Saturday:
Lunch: Mushroom soup (vegan) w toasted Turkish bread

Thinking about going to Catalano's for seafood. If I do, I'll get some white fish to steam - not sure yet which style.

And a mix of fish, prawns, mussels & scallop for an attempt at Bouillabaisse in the TM.

Dinner I'm going out for Indian - but will explore the Butter Chicken recipe next week.

That's the plan. :)